Groupon’s Worldwide Odyssey Takes It To Russia Via Social Network

Groupon, which is in the middle of an internationalisation phase, is going in to Russia in partnership with one of its main social networks.

Odnoklassniki (Classmates) is operated by Mail.ru Group, which last year put a $135 million investment in to Groupon.

Unlike with Groupon’s usual, email-delivered offers, the pair are making a new “joint service” by which Odnoklassniki users can buy coupon deals “without leaving the social network website”. In other words, it’s a win for Odnoklassniki.

Mail.ru rather humbly proclaims: “The joint service is the first project of its kind worldwide: no other social network has ever before realized incentives of this scale in the field of social commerce.” The other big social-coupons fusion, Facebook’s Deals, has only recently got going.